Two more blind playthroughs =D

Your Happy Place by Prengle:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ht-qT0ITZX4

Another Bad Place by Giftmacher:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIBPUoW8h78 

Thanks to Spirit for adding this to the DB! Mods feel free to update the OP with this mirror.

https://www.quaddicted.com/reviews/dm4jam.html 

EOM 

Essentially this: https://clips.twitch.tv/MildDignifiedPandaLitFam :D

Impressive output, cool maps, good job everyone - especially the new people!

Although I'm now sick of blue and lava, the maps are somewhat varied all things considered which is a nice outcome given the base theme. Some of them very classic in style, others modern with fucking Bal trims and introducing new elements. I also liked some of the layouts.

Gameplay is was a mixed bag for me, some maps quite fun, some not so much. Cramped + lava got tiresome quickly, though it's hardly your fault in a large pack like this. I derped quite a bit in places, got lost, and noclipped out of the lava a couple of times... Probably terrible to watch, but here you go anyway.

New guys: check out the "developer 1" command, it's useful for finding certain entity-related issues that otherwise may go unnoticed (there are many of such present in the maps). 

Thanks ww. 

Where you find a secret only to have it's satisfaction pulled like a rug from under you: "second secret"...Argh! I missed the first!! 

Two more blind playthroughs =D

The bad monster's place by Digs:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MimfGmpDNpg

An Unpleasant Alcazar by Danzadan:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yx8bBQyRA6Y 

https://www.twitch.tv/customshambler/videos/all last 4 videos. Be warned as well as low resolution, low bitrate, dropped frames and incompetent stream starts, there is also a lot of whining, bitching, moaning, derping, falling in lava, rage quitting, slagging off DM4 theme, and slagging of bal spikes and bal trim. I don't apologise for the latter two though. 

Artistical:

"A Profaned Place"
First time I played this through I broke the map, because I could I guess... I replayed it and thoroughly enjoyed it. The combat was nice, as was the scriping, I like the raising bridges.

I felt like there was an inconsistency of detail in this map, things like the cracked floor in some rooms were very detailed, as were the chains scattered about the place. I did however feel like the structure of the rooms themselves could have been more loved, many of the rooms felt like giant boxes, which I understand may be the feel you were going for, however detail can be added without sacrificing the bold look.

"A Final Place"

Very stark differences in this map than the previous one. Gameplay was tight and challenging, brushwork was neat and you paid homage to the theme really well... I do wish you had've varied up the textures a little, in particular move away from that riveted texture a little. Great job on both maps :)

Bloodshot:

Nice choice in starting areas, good use of lighting and geometry. Loved the "arms" that came out and retracted the doors for the "sewers". In fact all of your dynamic geometry in this map was excellent. Well set up encounters and gameplay. If I had any criticism at all it would be your choice of water texture, but that is a small thing in an otherwise gem of a map. Well done :)

Breezeep:

I don't know what I can say about this other than fantastic job. As somebody who really likes breaking maps, I gotta say thanks for not clipping off all those ledges... Fun was had. I played through a second time properly and the map was just as fun. The most impressive thing to me is how you avoided having boring geometry despite it being repetitive. That is a real feat in my book. The theme was somewhat of a departure from dm4, but it works as a re-imagining of the theme. This was probably one of my favourite maps from the pack. Thanks :)

Danzadan:

Big and grimey and imposing. A really neat map, with surprisingly few monsters for such a big map. Not a massive level of detail, however the map didn't feel any worse for it. I can't think of too many maps that had such simple geometry with such a strong aesthetic, great job.

Digs:

You did an amazing job of making base enemies fit with this theme. It is something I wouldn't have considered myself and despite this, your map probably adhered to the theme most. I really liked that you kept much of the original layout of the map. The textures blended really well together, the geo was pleasant and the combat was good.

DraQu & Promeus:

I'm amazed that you guys had time to make this map to this level of polish. The rockwork alone must have taken ages. I don't have anything to complain about with this map really. It played nice, it looks nice. Has a really cute secret. Perhaps this map didn't fit the theme as well as others, but regardless, was really good. Well done.


Thats enough for now, more later guys :) 

which map was it featuring tall black tower with open dome in the end pls? 

maybe breezeep or bloodshot 

Two more playthroughs =D

Lost Expedition by wedge_one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FopkOSUQq8Q

This is not my first playthrough. On my first run i couldn't find all the enemies, so i played it again and found the rest of them hiding on a secret area =D

Fear and Trembling by Ionous:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2psChSFoKk

Again, not my first playthrough. The first time i was out of ammo and couldn't kill the last shambler, so i played it again, saving ammo and searching for secrets (found a supershotgun and a rocket-launcher) =D 

You're an animal! Great fun to watch. 

you come to a tall black spikey tower in the chasm, later you go in and fight in semi-open dome (not 100% sure the map is from dm4jam pack, just played it lately, which maybe renders this post a little bit of a OT), not breezeep, not bloodshot 

https://www.quaddicted.com/reviews/unforgiven.html 

Thanks, but my work is easy. I just play the game and put the video on youtube. Anybody can do that.
Your videos, however, are really unique and much more useful to the community =D 

Some time has already passed since the release, but I haven't gotten down to writing my own feedback!

I was going to rewrite my notes on each map that I've played (not counting the ones I've beta tested) into a paragraph on two, but then I realised I'd be writing until the morning, so a simple transcription will have to do ;-)

Artistical I:
- pretty dark
- nice damaged brushwork and ceilings, but the walls need more love
- I got the SK before seeing a SK door?
- "take a swim" seems like instant death for me
- final horde spawns too early, I could just snipe the lot with the SNG from very far away

Artistical II:
- instant improvement over map 1!
- the scale and the layout reminded me of e3m3
- good gameplay but bullshit Shamblers
- "wait" -1" on doors broke my progression
- final horde pretty funny :)

Bloodshot:
- very good detailing!
- good colored lighting, except for the sunlight
- actual route choice! so good
- I wrote a bullet point saying just "pit" but I have no idea what I meant
- the water area gave me proper telefragged.bsp vibes
- the finale was tough

dm4 theme of digs:
- blue sky texture? id.wad is to blame, I suppose
- I liked the more mechanical tilt in the theme (base enemies, crates, cog textures in the walls)
- nice remix overall, with the new areas very faithful to the dm4 ethos
- full respect for the Tarbaby tunnel
- 0 secrets found :(

DraQu feat. Timbaland - PromiscEUs Girl:
- VERY impressive for a first time Q1SP, detailing and colors are A+
- quite tough, the GA might have come a bit late?
- nice layout, was fun to see how it all fits together in the end
- no way back from the ending - but why? could've added a teleport
- I found the ending actually the easiest, since I just circlestrafed until only a couple enemies were left
- possibly the best "obligatory debut map in a jam" so far???

ionous:
- never really got a chance to give you proper notes, so here goes:
- walks a fine line between enjoyably hard and unplayably hard ;-)
- DARK!
- pitch black corners + fulldark Zombie models = excuse me wtf?
- ran pretty slow for some reason
- small & nice enough to keep trying to beat it... but not for long
- as was the case with 1024, the map laughed at my pitiful secret finding skills again

Mariteaux:
- nice palate cleanser after ionous: easier, lighter, simpler construction
- interesting layout, feels like dm4 broken into bits and then put together in different ways
- good combat flow
- nice and oldschool
- only 1/7 secrets found :( 

Nait:
- weird upscaled textures
- multiple Death Knights vs. barely any ammo
- tight passageways
- interesting ideas but lazy/rushed execution?
- slightly disappointing, you've done better maps in much less time :(

Pringles:
- lava glow bit too strong for my tastes
- closest to the dm4 "spacial theme" without being cramped
- expected an underlift secret at that one lift with the shootable button
- good extra touch with the [†] lights
- again, SK spotted before SK door
- I also wrote "tip: angles on trigs" but don't remember why, even after replaying

rj (you got some of this in our mails):
- the "obligatory return in a jam"!
- I've never actually played the TFL maps
- lots of symmetry in room designs
- big in scale, RMQ?
- almost missed the GL in the shadows
- stingy on health
- I liked playing stealthy with the Fiends at the 3 buttons area
- I was already getting slight E4 vibes at the area with many small lifts... then I looked up :)

scar3crow:
- holy moly
- rudely bright
- got that "speedmap from when the numbers were in two digits" feel
- ironically I had the most fun in this map, probably

Shadesmaster:
- another Doom E2M1 remix in a jam, I must be missing something about the original map since I find it very weak
- dark af, the high saturation on the colored lights partly to blame
- OK gameplay but the layout didn't tickle me

TheMusic:
- ok map!
- base monsters and base sounds on buttons/lifts? (not sure why I wrote it down, it's not a complaint)
- again, strong lava glow, but it goes with the map name I suppose

wedge:
- wtf opening, good brushwork on that slipgate though
- very nice conceit with the whole cave thing
- SG vs DKs = :(, far too few nails!
- good use of teles!

ww:
- another interesting conceit
- wtf, a working thunder sound in id1?
- cool "dimensional" Shambler, pretty DOOM PWAD-esque
- I got lost a total of 3 times, playtesting 20+ maps before release truly left its mark

And that's pretty much it! No demos, sorry - I played all of these as part of testing the pack before release and as such I didn't know if there would be changes to the maps or not, so I opted out of recording anything.

I certainly did not expect this jam would have many entries, let alone 22(!), in one fell swoop we've caught up to 2017 in terms of how many maps were released through the year. Maybe there's hope for another year of 100+ Q1SPs??

My own top 5 goes as follows:
1. skacky
2. DraQu
3. Breezeep
4. Bloodshot
5. digs

Very good work, everyone! 

If I'm allowed to be a little conceited, I'm going to waffle about my own map for a bit, since I'm still rather excited about how well it turned out in the end, against all odds ;-)

Back when AD came out in 2015, I had started a different remake of DM4, with a similar theme to Firetop Mountain. It didn't get very far, but I decided to reuse some ideas and textures in this one. In fact, most of the map used the gray brick from rogue/Firetop before Kell advised me to change it, at which point I went through several other brick textures before settling on one from Q3A (recolored by me).

The RL + MH area from DM4 was, once again, the first one I'd built. I originally had the player start at the MH (it's such a fitting place for a player start isn't it), but then I realised I wasn't getting enough gameplay from that room, so after a brief stint of obsessing over E3M7, I built a small chamber with a "secret map" teleporter and put it behind a secret door on the other side of the lava river.

As the map grew, I decided to put the player start closer to the big lava pit, so I moved the teleport chamber, and the secret door became an actual secret, that despite being very obviously a secret, gives people a lot of trouble to open :^)

Not everybody liked my use of the Doom 3 rune textures but I'm still happy with it, I think it gives the map stronger ties to DM4. I even made a D3-ified variant of the dm4 angular rune, but I didn't use it too much since I used it for secret purposes, which maybe was too oblique as far as visual languages go...

A lot of you might remember a pretty old screenshot of a wizard themed map from Kinn. I used it as a reference picture when I was building the MH area, as is rather self-evident by just looking at it: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/348561852990488579/417058816908328960/kinn_abbey08.jpg

The outdoor patio with the lava castle setpiece is probably the bit that turned out the best - I didn't get to see how it looked with proper sunlight until I was done closing it off around 3:30 AM, I was actually taken aback a bit with how good it actually looked with sunlight2 and a skybox. The AD trees contribute to the final visual a lot as well, thanks to khreathor converting the mdl to obj and then to map. He told me I owe him a blowjob and to be fair I haven't fully ruled it out.

I'll also to admit to cheating - the castle exterior is my jam 6 scrap ;-)

All in all, I think this is the best map I've done yet, and also probably the first one I made where a clarified style is beginning to show. I like platforming bits, vertical progression and good combat flow; I think I pulled off all three quite well. I'm also quite flattered with the reception this map is getting - I'm quite proud with how I went from having the worst map back in jam 1, through "good, but not going to be anyone's favorite" in retro6 and jam 9, to one of the most liked in this jam :-)

I must thank dumptruck for giving me (and the others) the motivation to go map! Way to make a community milestone happen. 

You have every right to be proud of this map. It hinted at dm4 (verticality, lava, runes) but stepped away from it to really solid results. Great texture usage and encounters. My favorite moments were the central lift area with the easy but nerve wracking jumps and the geo in all the lava areas.

I think the set pieces and encounters were the strongest element overall but all the pistons were firing on this one. Textures, design flow all worked really well. One of my favs of the pack. 

Giftmacher:

So I tested the beta for you and totally forgot I had done so until about a third of the way through my playthrough. It felt really similar but different at the same time. It was quite an unsettling feeling to be honest XD.

I was a little saddened that the eerie feel of the outdoors section was cut from the map, I can see why, it was pretty confronting, but it did break up the "sameness" of the map up a bit. I also thought that the ceiling lift secret was really good. I hope you salvage that idea and can use it in a future map. Again, I can see why you scrapped it, as the implementation was a little awkward in this map.

In the end the improved gold key section was good, as was the tiered fight against the vores. You managed to make a really nice nod to the original map, despite the addition of so much curvature. Excellent job man, well done :)

Ionous:

God damn man, so much curved architecture, you must hate yourself or something =P

Really impressively brushed up map, nice and compact, nice texture choices and adherence to the theme. Lava pit arena fight was one of the more memorable fights from the pack. Not much else to say except thanks, great map :)

Mariteaux:

The few things I would improve to change this from a good map to a very good map are:

Less coloured lighting. You went a little overboard here, with coloured lighting usually less is more.

Fix the pentagram lava swim. A simple way to do this would be to lock off one of the first path, funnel the player into the second path, give them another pentagram at the button, then unblock the first path. Alternatively, give the player a warning message that they need to find two under lava button quickly.

Consider changing those wind tunnels for a more "id-esque" style.

Change that floor texture XD
I mentioned this on stream, it doesn't work great IMO. I just don't think that it fits in with the theme particularly well.

Now those were the negatives, lets look at the positives.

The geo in this map fits the theme quite well. Nice claustrophobic hallways and rooms, good tiered layout. Pretty much spot on there. Your choice of textures was good, and even your placement of the coloured lighting was good (even though they needed to be toned down). Gameplay was a strong point too.

Was a good map, look forward to your next release.

Muk0r:

One of the more unique maps among the jam. In a very Muk0r style. I liked the breaking runes mechanic. The "scripting" was nice but not too in your face. I thought that the explosions at the gates after you shot the runes was a nice touch.

Theme wise it was a fairly large departure from the source material. Having said that I thoroughly enjoyed the map. One of my favourites of the pack.

Nait:

We're starting to expect these massive monolithic maps from you now man. Visually very impressive. Gameplay was also very good. I think I unlocked something in the wrong sequence on my first gameplay and softlocked myself. OR I just missed the key... (that kind of thing happens to me a lot).

One thing I like is when maps give me the ability to rampjump to try and skip stuff. This map was nice in that regard, even if it wasn't intended. Texture wise you stuck to the theme quite well, geometry wise, it was really good, but a departure from the theme. Having said that, it was a good departure, very brutalist lost lovecraftian city. Cool shit.

Things I would have done differently:

There was one portion where you lined up rune textures to convey direction / give light along a hallway. I feel like a bespoke texture would have worked better here.

Also, the wall texture could have been varied a little.

Really these are just small things in an otherwise excellent map. Great job.

OTP:

You kinda threw the theme out the window, but regardless was fun to play and looked really pretty.

Gameplay was excellent (who doesn't love a good quad run). Good geometry, broken blocks in the lava were a nice touch (albeit difficult to traverse occasionally), and nice set pieces (building exteriors, trees, etc).

I wasn't too fond of your lava texture at first, but in hindsight it works for your map. I'm still not too keen on your rune texture choice, a small edit would make it so much better IMO (that is removing the black from behind the rune and changing it to something similar to the rock/brickwork around it).

This was one of the stand-out maps for me. Great job. 

Two more blind playthroughs =D

Funnel of Contempt by mukor:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DsOBgiAbp0

A Pact Beheld by onetruepurple:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Juj_jZhDdcA 

These maps are giving me flashbacks to 1996 and its a great feeling: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLnVnWr4MqNWc03zZdHpgE57kd-TiE2LpN 

http://quaketastic.com/files/demos/spy_dm4jam_skacky.7z

A great tribute to dm4 and the Ep3 by skacky, loved every bit of this map
The ending were a bit tricky thou, this is my favorite map of the pack so far 

http://quaketastic.com/files/demos/spy_dm4jam_digs.7z

a good dm4 rmx, not best work from digs, this one's looking like a speed/turtle map